Indonesia strikes back at Islamist
hardliners By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Last week was a rough one
for jihadis in Indonesia. President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono's administration launched a long-overdue
comprehensive campaign against violent Islamic
extremists. In the country with the world's most
Muslims, the outcome of Yudhoyono's initiative
could prove far more significant in the global war
for the hearts and minds of Muslims than the
assassination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Since the fall of General Suharto's New
Order regime in 1998, Islamic extremists have
asserted their right to enjoy the fruits of
democracy and impose the will of Indonesia's
Muslim majority as they presume to interpret it.
They're unperturbed that most Indonesians, Muslim
and non-Muslim alike, oppose their agenda. These
radicals are no democrats. Politically educated
under
Suharto's reign of physical
intimidation and intolerance of dissent, they
merely wish to substitute their own version of
autocracy and repression (see Indonesia's Islamists flex their
muscles, October 27, 2005).
A
handful of radical Islamic groups use violence as
a first resort against their opponents, often with
a wink from authorities. Violent extremism's
renaissance began with police using vigilantes to
extract protection money from reluctant bar owners
and blossomed with the military's logistical
support to send thousands of jihadis to the
Malukus and central Sulawesi to undermine
Abdurrahman Wahid's presidential election victory
in 1999. Armed mobs draped in the white robes of
Islam routinely attack churches, homes and
businesses they accuse of various heretical views
while police take no action and perpetrators
escape prosecution. Government reluctance to stand
up to thugs gives the impression of implicit
approval, or that the extremists serve a higher
authority.
Disrupting public
order Last July, thousands of
vigilantes stormed a community of 700 members of
Amadiyah, a Muslim splinter group in Bogor, a hill
town outside Jakarta where President Yudhoyono
makes his family home. The national Attorney
General's Office promised to investigate
Ahmadiyah, not the attackers, as "disruptive to
the public order". Strikes on other Ahmadiyah
facilities as well as a wave of attacks on
Christian churches followed.
This April, a
violent Islamic extremist campaign spearheaded by
Islam Defenders Front (known by its Indonesian
abbreviation FPI) stopped publication of a
nudity-free local edition of Playboy magazine (see
Playboy and hardcore
violence, April 21). Mobs threatened
and attacked news vendors and distributors, seized
magazines and stoned the publisher's office while
police passively stood by. Mainstream groups
joined the campaign against Playboy, offering mild
regrets over any violence in pursuit of the
righteous cause.
Proposed anti-pornography
legislation, laden with Islamist principles better
suited for fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi
Arabia, has become a focal point in the struggle
over the creeping Islamization in Indonesia, which
has more non-Muslims than Australia and Canada
combined. The bill has also become a convenient
excuse for violent displays of piety. After a
rally in Jakarta last month supporting the
legislation, extremist thugs attacked clubs in
Jakarta and descended on the homes of prominent
opponents of the bill. One target asked police for
help as mobs harassed her, chanting slogans
outside her house and telling her to leave town.
Jakarta police chief Firman Gani demurred, saying
he'd need a language expert to determine whether
the chants violated the law.
Last
straw The last straw stirring Yudhoyono's
ponderous government appears to have been an
attack on former president Wahid on May 23. At an
interfaith forum in the West Java town of
Purwakarta, members of FPI and other radical
groups forced Wahid, virtually blind and limited
physically because of a series of strokes, off the
stage. The radicals cited Wahid's opposition to
the anti-pornography bill as an insult to Islam.
Mainstream Muslim groups Nahdlatul Ulama -
formerly headed by Wahid - and Muhammidyah, with a
combined membership of 70 million, denounced FPI's
action against Wahid. Hundreds of his young
supporters from the National Awakening Party's
paramilitary wing poured into the streets,
clashing with FPI members.
It may not have
been just the political cover from mass
organizations and the prospect of further street
violence that moved the government. If the
extremists went after Wahid, a Muslim cleric and
scholar as well as a former president, no
politician could feel safe. While Wahid's
iconoclasm and failed presidency - he was removed
in favor of Megawati Sukarnoputri after two stormy
years in office - have left him virtually
powerless, he's still widely respected as a symbol
of Indonesia's unique brand of Islam. Radicals
might have miscalculated Wahid's political
impotence as a signal they'd win applause rather
than condemnation for attacking him.
'Invisible hands' The Yudhoyono
administration's campaign against violent
Islamists began innocently in the president's
Pancasila Day speech on June 1. Pancasila
(Sanskrit for "five principles") is the national
philosophy enshrined by the nation's founders and
subsequently corrupted under Suharto. In his
speech, Yudhoyono called for a revival of
Pancasila and accused "invisible hands" of
trying to spread ideas against the nation's core
principles of tolerance and pluralism. Although
the "invisible hands" metaphor is hardly apt for
white-robed mobs with stones and clubs, the
message came through.
The speech was a
nice bit of political shadow-boxing, indirectly
confronting the extremists and recasting the
debate in the government's chosen terms. But
Yudhoyono is becoming famous for saying the right
things, when he does finally speak out, and then
failing to follow through with effective action.
This week, the action began. On Wednesday,
Widodo Adi Suptjipto, coordinating minister for
political, legal and security affairs, announced
that the government will no longer tolerate groups
that take the law into their own hands. While that
may have been said before, Widodo added this
important coda: the government will provide
political cover for police and support their
effort to enforce the law against these groups, no
matter who their patrons may be.
When the
Indonesian police receive political support, as in
the Bali bombings of 2002, they've proved they can
act professionally and decisively. The Bali
investigation featured star officer Mangku Pastika
in charge, and the spotlight now falls on Jakarta
police chief Gani to show his stuff. Even though
vigilantism isn't restricted to Jakarta, the
capital has seen the highest-profile incidents and
Gani stands out as a symbol of police
indifference.
On Friday, Home Minister M
Ma'ruf announced an agreement with legislative
leaders to enact a law enabling the government to
dissolve organizations "disturbing security and
order". Though the vague wording smacks of
Suharto-era repression, human-rights activists
didn't promptly unleash their usual complaints.
Perhaps they realize that thuggery is a greater
threat to rights than a potentially restrictive
new law. They may also recognize that the real
purpose of the proposal is to get political
parties - Yudhoyono represents a tiny party and
gets spotty support from the larger ones - and
legislators to denounce vigilantism and withdraw
their support from such groups.
These are
all good, solid moves, breaking the government's
deafening silence on extremist violence. Expect
more this week: Yudhoyono (or Vice President Jusuf
Kalla) will meet with the leaders of major Muslim
organizations, and each group's head will denounce
extremist violence as contrary to Islam. A similar
meeting and announcement after the second Bali
bombings last October reversed the groups'
lukewarm criticism of terrorist violence - it's
wrong but we understand why - and prompted a sea
change in public opinion from indifference to
condemnation of such acts of terror.
Condemning the radical thugs may prove a
greater challenge for so-called mainstream leaders
who have found common ground with extremists.
Muhammidyah chairman Din Syamsuddin also chairs
the Indonesia Ulemas Council, the would-be supreme
authority for Islam in Indonesia whose
fatwa against heretics and pluralism have
provided religious cover for violence. The usual
weasel is that the leaders condemn the violence
but blame police for failing to prevent it, rather
than the perpetrators. Onstage with the president,
the leaders will lose their wiggle room.
Hypocrisy isn't all being laid bare as
violent extremism comes under counterattack.
Playboy surprised the public and especially
extremists with its second issue. After being run
out of Jakarta by hardliners and suspending
publication, the magazine didn't fold but quietly
relocated to predominantly Hindu Bali. The second
Playboy includes blank pages dedicated to
advertisers who've been threatened for placing ads
in the first issue. While still free of nudity,
June's Bali-based French model Amar Doriane in a
sheer negligee makes April's Playmate "look like a
naive schoolgirl" according to one local
newspaper. The Yudhoyono team wasn't alone in
showing a bit of cheek toward violent radicals
last week.
Gary LaMoshi has
worked as a broadcast producer and print writer
and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of
investor rights advocate eRaider.com, he is also a
contributor to Slate and Salon.com, and a
counselor forWriting Camp.
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